Former Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert has praised the club's transformation under Unai Emery, stating there is "zero comparison" between the team's current success and his own tenure
Former Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert
Former Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert(Image: Photo by Neville Williams/Aston Villa FC via Getty Images)
View Image
Paul Lambert believes that the Aston Villa that fans are seeing now, bears little to no resemblance to the club he left behind back in 2015.
The Scot was the manager at Villa Park between 2012 and 2015, in what was a period of struggle for the club under Randy Lerner as they fought to maintain their Premier League status, all the while slimming down the wage bill and looking to the lower leagues and the continent for reinforcements.
There were one or two highlights, namely Christian Benteke who Villa would sell on for four times what they paid for him after a goal-laden spell, but on the whole the recruitment drives during Lambert's tenure certainly delivered more failures than successes.
One thing that is clear is that Villa are in a far better position under NSWE than they were when Lambert was having to cope during the dying days of Lerner’s ownership.
He told us: “There's no comparison. There's absolutely zero comparison and it's great to see the club the way it should be. The fan base it's got, the stadium, the training ground, the manager – it’s all fantastic for them.
“Unai Emery has been a revelation for the club. It's amazing because when he went to Arsenal everybody thought he’s no good, but then he does fantastically well with Sevilla and does unbelievably with Aston Villa.
“I always think if the infrastructure is really good above you then you've got a chance. When I was at Villa, I knew the situation was that we're going to have to sell people to get money in, and the owner wanted to sell the club. So it became so difficult and you can never say anything in public because it just creates a fire really.
“Whereas now I think there's a lot of unity. Similar to what I say about Celtic, if there's unity, it’s an incredible club. Aston Villa have unity, and it’s also an incredible club. So, I just think that I can I could never compare Aston Villa now to Aston Villa when I was there."